The Mirror Book
In conversation with Charlotte Grimshaw
Growing up behind the family façade.
‘It’s material, make a story out of it,’ was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her famous literary family. But when her life was suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to re-examine the reality of that material. The more she delved into her memories, the more the real characters in her life seemed to object. So what was the truth of ‘a whole life lived in fiction'?
A compelling and sometimes uncomfortable read, The Mirror Book (RHNZ Vintage, 2021) is Charlotte’s examination and re-examination of the narratives surrounding her memories of a childhood in a famous literary family, and the effect the careful construction of those narratives had on her sense of self and stability, and on the life she creates.
The messy reality of family life, the different versions of truth drawn from memory, reframing a narrative – Phillippa Duffy will spend an hour in conversation with Charlotte about these and other aspects of this powerful memoir.
Includes audience Q&A and book sales. Charlotte will be available to sign books after the event.
Door sales will be available unless sold out in advance. Cash or online bank transfer at time of purchase only (no eftpos or credit available).
Tickets will be sold to Covid19 Alert Level 2 capacity in the first instance. If Dunedin is at Level 2 on the date of the event, A release tickets will have guaranteed seating and B release tickets will be refunded.
‘It’s material, make a story out of it,’ was the mantra Charlotte Grimshaw grew up with in her famous literary family. But when her life was suddenly turned upside-down, she needed to re-examine the reality of that material. The more she delved into her memories, the more the real characters in her life seemed to object. So what was the truth of ‘a whole life lived in fiction'?
A compelling and sometimes uncomfortable read, The Mirror Book (RHNZ Vintage, 2021) is Charlotte’s examination and re-examination of the narratives surrounding her memories of a childhood in a famous literary family, and the effect the careful construction of those narratives had on her sense of self and stability, and on the life she creates.
The messy reality of family life, the different versions of truth drawn from memory, reframing a narrative – Phillippa Duffy will spend an hour in conversation with Charlotte about these and other aspects of this powerful memoir.
Includes audience Q&A and book sales. Charlotte will be available to sign books after the event.
Door sales will be available unless sold out in advance. Cash or online bank transfer at time of purchase only (no eftpos or credit available).
Tickets will be sold to Covid19 Alert Level 2 capacity in the first instance. If Dunedin is at Level 2 on the date of the event, A release tickets will have guaranteed seating and B release tickets will be refunded.
Charlotte Grimshaw
About Charlotte Grimshaw
Charlotte Grimshaw is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, two outstanding collections of linked short stories, and a memoir, The Mirror Book. As a reviewer in The New Zealand Listener noted: ‘A swarming energy pervades every page she writes ... her descriptive writing has always been of the highest order. Most of it would work just as well as poetry.’
She has been awarded the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and is a winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. Her story collection Opportunity was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Prize, and won New Zealand’s premier Montana Award for Fiction, along with the Montana Medal for Book of the Year. She was also Montana Book Reviewer of the Year.
Her story collection Singularity was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Prize and the Asia Pacific section of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her novel, The Night Book, was a finalist for the New Zealand Post Award. Her novel Mazarine was longlisted for the 2019 Ockham Book Awards. She has won a Qantas media award for her columns, and was the 2018, 2019 and 2021 Voyager Media Awards Reviewer of the Year.
Charlotte's bestselling novels The Night Book and Soon have been made into the TV miniseries, The Bad Seed.
Charlotte Grimshaw is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, two outstanding collections of linked short stories, and a memoir, The Mirror Book. As a reviewer in The New Zealand Listener noted: ‘A swarming energy pervades every page she writes ... her descriptive writing has always been of the highest order. Most of it would work just as well as poetry.’
She has been awarded the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship and is a winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. Her story collection Opportunity was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Prize, and won New Zealand’s premier Montana Award for Fiction, along with the Montana Medal for Book of the Year. She was also Montana Book Reviewer of the Year.
Her story collection Singularity was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Prize and the Asia Pacific section of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her novel, The Night Book, was a finalist for the New Zealand Post Award. Her novel Mazarine was longlisted for the 2019 Ockham Book Awards. She has won a Qantas media award for her columns, and was the 2018, 2019 and 2021 Voyager Media Awards Reviewer of the Year.
Charlotte's bestselling novels The Night Book and Soon have been made into the TV miniseries, The Bad Seed.
Phillippa Duffy
About Phillippa Duffy
Phillippa Duffy has spent a happy 20+ years in the book industry, including both trade and educational publishing. For the past eight years, she has been General Manager of University Book Shop (Otago) Ltd, a registered charity wholly owned by Otago University Students’ Association. She was a judge for the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (Poetry) and is a current trustee of the Dunedin Athenaeum & Mechanics Institute, and the Ignition Children’s Festival. She was one of four founding trustees of the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival and a 2020 finalist for Emerging Business Leader in the Westpac Otago Business Awards where the bookshop was a finalist in the Retail Excellence category.
Phillippa has a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Otago where she specialised in Old and Medieval English alongside New Zealand Literature. In December 2020, she completed a DipGrad in Politics from Otago and is trying to squeeze in the last few papers for a BCom in Economics in the gaps between work, family, reading, and sleeping.
Phillippa also has an interest in heritage buildings, successfully promoting a Category II Historic Places Trust listing for the University Book Shop building, originally built as the Romison Confectionary Company factory and shop in 1910. She lived in a listed cottage in Rosebery Street, before moving to an RA Lawson-designed ‘doer upper’ near the centre of town where she lives with her husband and primary school-aged children.
Originally from a farm in rural Southland, she is as proud of living south of the 45th parallel as she is of being an Arts graduate.
Phillippa Duffy has spent a happy 20+ years in the book industry, including both trade and educational publishing. For the past eight years, she has been General Manager of University Book Shop (Otago) Ltd, a registered charity wholly owned by Otago University Students’ Association. She was a judge for the 2020 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards (Poetry) and is a current trustee of the Dunedin Athenaeum & Mechanics Institute, and the Ignition Children’s Festival. She was one of four founding trustees of the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival and a 2020 finalist for Emerging Business Leader in the Westpac Otago Business Awards where the bookshop was a finalist in the Retail Excellence category.
Phillippa has a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Otago where she specialised in Old and Medieval English alongside New Zealand Literature. In December 2020, she completed a DipGrad in Politics from Otago and is trying to squeeze in the last few papers for a BCom in Economics in the gaps between work, family, reading, and sleeping.
Phillippa also has an interest in heritage buildings, successfully promoting a Category II Historic Places Trust listing for the University Book Shop building, originally built as the Romison Confectionary Company factory and shop in 1910. She lived in a listed cottage in Rosebery Street, before moving to an RA Lawson-designed ‘doer upper’ near the centre of town where she lives with her husband and primary school-aged children.
Originally from a farm in rural Southland, she is as proud of living south of the 45th parallel as she is of being an Arts graduate.
